LOW-POWER WAKEUP RADIO FOR MOBILE DEVICES

• US 20180255515A1
• Filed: 09/25/2015
• Published: 09/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta Hyde, Maruti, Park, Minyoung, Sivanesan, Kathiravetpillai, Somayazulu, Vallabhajosyula S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,492,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/04 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/16 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/73 Battery saving arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/02 Power saving arrangements in wired systems H04L12/12; signaling of mobile application services, e.g. low battery notifications H04W4/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0235 where the received signal is a power saving command
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Described herein are various wake-up procedures for user equipments (UEs). A UE may include a low power wake-up radio (LP-WUR) separate from a front end module (FEM). The LP-WUR may remain awake continuously (or at high-frequency intervals) and monitor for a wakeup signal, allowing the FEM to remain powered down in the absence of downlink data. When the LP-WUR detects a wakeup signal configured for the LP-WUR, the LP-WUR may be configured to wake up the FEM to receive incoming downlink data. Various network components may be configured to ensure UEs with LP-WURs receive corresponding wake-up signals.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a first receiver comprising a low power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR) to monitor a downlink channel for a LP-WUR wake-up signal from an eNodeB, the LP-WUR wake-up signal to comprise a narrow-band signal; and

a second receiver comprising a front end module (FEM), separate from the LP-WUR, to monitor a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the FEM comprising;

transmission circuitry to transmit signal data to the eNodeB indicating the UE includes the LP-WUR;

circuitry to execute a power saving mode (PSM) for the FEM to cease monitoring the PDCCH in response to a period of inactivity; and

circuitry to exit the PSM for the FEM to monitor the PDCCH in response to the LP-WUR receiving the LP-WUR wake-up signal from the eNodeB.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the LP-WUR is to monitor a fixed physical resource block (PRB) location on the downlink channel allocated for the LP-WUR wake-up signal.

3. The UE of claim 2, wherein the LP-WUR wake-up signal is modulated according to an on-off keying (OOK) tone.

4. The UE of claim 2, wherein the fixed PRB location is included in a primary frequency band.

5. The UE of claim 2, wherein the fixed PRB location is included in a secondary frequency band.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the LP-WUR wake up signal further includes a system architecture evolution (SAE)-Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (S-TMSI) identifying the UE.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the LP-WUR is to monitor the downlink channel for the LP-WUR wake-up signal periodically according to a first time interval, and the FEM further comprises circuitry to execute a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for monitoring the PDCCH according to a second time interval, the second time interval less than the first time interval.

8. The UE of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more antennas communicatively coupled to the LP-WUR for monitoring the downlink channel for the LP-WUR wake-up signal from the eNodeB, and communicatively coupled to the FEM to transmit the signal to the eNodeB indicating the UE includes the LP-WUR.

9. The UE of claim 8, wherein the UE comprises a machine-type communications (MTC) device.

10. The UE of claim 8, wherein the one or more antennas comprise a first antenna for monitoring the downlink channel for the LP-WUR wake-up signal from the eNodeB, and an antenna to transmit the signal to the eNodeB indicating the UE includes the LP-WUR module.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising contents, which when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations to:

generate signal data to be transmitted to an eNodeB indicating a user equipment (UE) includes low power wake-up radio (LP-WUR);

execute a power saving mode (PSM) for a front end module (FEM) of the UE to cease monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in response to a period of inactivity; and

exit the PSM for the FEM in response to the LP-WUR receiving an LP-WUR wake-up signal from an eNodeB via a downlink channel.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising contents, which when executed by the computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations to:

execute a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for monitoring the PDCCH according to a first time interval;

wherein the LP-WUR is to monitor the downlink channel for the LP-WUR wake-up signal periodically according to a second time interval, the second time interval greater than the first time interval.

13. The non-transitory medium of claim 11, wherein the UE comprises a machine-type communications (MTC) device.

14. The non-transitory medium of claim 11, wherein the UE comprises a cellular Internet of Things (CIoT) UE.

15. An apparatus for eNodeB comprising:

receiver circuitry configured to;

receive signal data from a mobility management entity (MME) of an evolved packet core (EPC) network identifying downlink data for a user equipment (UE); and

receive signal data from the MME indicating the UE includes a low power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR) and indicating the LP-WUR of the UE is to exit a power saving mode (PSM); and

transmission circuitry configured to;

transmit a wake-up signal to the LP-WUR of the UE for the UE to exit the PSM.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the signal data indicating the LP-WUR of the UE is to exit the PSM transmitted to the UE is to be modulated according to an on-off keying (OOK) tone.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the signal data indicating the LP-WUR module of the UE is to exit the PSM comprises an LP-WUR wake-up signal to be included in a pre-determined physical resource block (PRB) location allocated for the LP-WUR wake-up signal, the pre-determined PRB location to comprise at least one of:

a location within a long term evolution (LTE) frequency band;

or

a location outside the LTE frequency band.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the fixed PRB location is included in a primary frequency band.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the fixed PRB location is included in a secondary frequency band.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the signal data indicating the LP-WUR module of the UE is to exit the PSM comprises an LP-WUR wake-up signal to be included in a narrow frequency band of a downlink channel.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the signal data received from the MME of the EPC network indicating the LP-WUR of the UE is to exit the PSM comprises a system architecture evolution (SAE)-Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (S-TMSI) identifying the UE.

22. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the wake-up signal further includes data for assisting the UE in fast network entry.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the data comprises a preamble for non-contention based random access.